F38: Failure of Success Criterion 1.1.1 due to omitting the alt-attribute for non-text
content used for decorative purposes only in HTML

Applicability

Description

This describes a failure condition for text alternatives for images that
should be ignored by AT. If there is no alt attribute at all assistive
technologies are not able to ignore the non-text content. The alt attribute
must be proved and have a null value (i.e. alt="" or
alt=" ") to avoid a failure of this Success Criterion.

Note: Although alt=" " is valid, alt="" is
recommended.

Examples

Failure Example 1: Decorative images that have no alt
attribute

Resources

No resources available for this technique.

Related Techniques

(none currently listed)

Tests

Procedure

Identify any img and applet elements
that are used for purely decorative content;

Check that the alt attribute for these elements
exists.

Check that the alt attribute for these elements is
null.

Expected Results

if step #2 or step #3 is false, this failure condition applies and
content fails the Success Criterion.